Trading Google Maps for a paper map and compass, our writer treks six days from Ljubljana to Trieste with On Foot Holidays — and learns that presence, not convenience, is what actually changes you.
Words, Video & Images Roberto Serrini
I've travelled to a lot of places in a lot of different ways. I've crossed Laos on elephant, carved through the Alps on a vintage motorcycle and explored the Northwest Passage aboard a Russian research vessel. But when someone suggested I walk across Slovenia, I hesitated. Not because of the walking (I live in New York), but because, if I'm honest, I'd never given Slovenia much thought.
Then my editor weighed in:
If you know anything about travel writers, your editor's advice carries more weight than your doctor's. So I went.
The Ferrari gardens in all their splendor confirm that the hilltop medieval town of Stanjel has been a secret escape for the rich and famous for centuries.
On Foot Holidays specialises in self-guided walks stitched together by locals who know every trail, café, vineyard and hidden shortcut worth knowing. The route that caught my eye began in Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana, before winding through the country's Karst wine region and crossing into Italy, finishing in the historic port city of Trieste. I knew almost nothing about any of it, but fortunately, On Foot Holidays makes ignorance easy.
A few months before departure, a thick envelope arrived in the mail like a Cold War dead drop. Inside were topographical maps, route notes, weather advice, restaurant recommendations, packing lists and one item that stopped me in my tracks: compass.
For those who don't know, a compass is a needle that points to magnetic north. Pair it with a paper map (remember those?) and, astonishingly, you'll always know where you are without charging a battery or hunting for reception. It's a skill that's been all but lost to antiquity, i.e. when I first discovered travelling. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it until someone handed it back.
My wife and I start in Ljubljana, defined by a castle on a hill, a tranquil river laced with a dozen storybook bridges, and equal parts Eastern European and Italian. The people of Ljubljana are suspiciously lovely. Our cab driver, after learning we were from California, refused to let us pay. I've taken thousands of cabs in my life. That's never happened before.
We checked into Hotel Slamic, family-run since the 1930s, and the kind of place where you become part of the family at check-in, and if you can't find anyone, they're at the bar, which is usually where you are too.
Charming, quaint, artistic, vintage and modern, Ljubljana is hard to pronounce but easy to fall in love with.
The Butcher's Bridge is where you go to lock up your eternal love for this moody city.
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The next morning, the real journey began.
I won't walk you through it step by step; there's too much, and it doesn't matter anyway, because your version of this trip will be entirely different from mine, and that's the beauty of it. This type of slow travel, off-menu and off-line is what travel was like in the before times; discovery.
Another perfect quaint little town? Do I have to?
On Foot Holidays hands that back to you. Everyday starts the same. Each morning our local host met us, loaded our luggage into a waiting vehicle, shook our hands and wished us luck. Our bags would magically appear at the next hotel. Everything else was up to us. Our only job was to walk through a real-life painting: rolling hills, poplar trees, so many fallen cherry blossoms that the forest floor looked like a ticker-tape parade.
The UNESCO Skojan caves are some of the largest in the world. Look closely. Those are people down there. And that’s not even half way down.
You forget you even have a phone. You forget about the compass too, nudged along instead by a little yellow trail arrow. Eventually you reach the giant Predjama Castle that’s built inside an even more gigantic giant cave and stop for a cold radler; that's beer and lemonade, invented by German cyclists in the 1920s because Gatorade is for children and invalids. You grab a few for the road to keep “hydrated”, and pleasantly buzzed, you continue to wander through meadows as the light starts to fade.
The church spire outside the Hisa Posebne Sorte, guides us home like a white beacon.
The honor system rules here, a reflection of the kindness of the people that call Slovenia home.
This local really likes woodworking. He was so proud to show us his art. No money, no sales, just “hey, check this out”.
The terrain kept shifting, as did the options; a formidable climb here, or a gentler option there, all leading you to your destination. And every so often we'd stumble upon something that felt almost too perfect to be real; a tiny village library that begged to be photographed; a mountaintop monastery where nobody was around to stop us ringing the bell; a haunting war memorial forged from the melted barrels of a hundred rifles, twisted into the face of a man as a reminder that even places this peaceful have lived through darker times. Medieval villages appeared without warning, their narrow lanes lined with honour-system jars of local honey, while artisans would wave us inside simply to show off whatever they happened to be carving, painting or building that day. Nobody wanted to sell us anything. They just wanted to share it. There are no other tourists. Just a country, and you, walking through it.
No sign posts, no problem. Ancient country trails keep you on track while walking through natural bliss.
One of Slovenia's great draws is the Karst River valley, whose thousand foot thick layer of Cretaceous limestone has trapped the fierce Reka River underground for over a mile. You won't see any of that from the endless rows of chartreuse vines, but you'll taste it in your glass: the high mineral content produces some of the best wine in the world, wine that barely makes it to the U.S. Here however it's all you drink, and it's better than almost anything I've had.
Loves a glass of red.
Triest has some of the freshest, most local, most flavorful ingredients to be found in Europe, a perfect storm of sea, mountain, and valley fueling every flavor.
Fortunately, it is all around you, and don’t be surprised if while walking through some stranger’s vineyard that they demand you come in, sit down and meet their family, pets, and drink several bottles of their wine. Rules are rules.
Walking six hours a day sounds like a lot, and it is. But filling every minute of your day with presence changes your brain chemistry. By the time you reach Trieste you are ready to celebrate that kind of awakening: a historic port city that once housed great minds like James Joyce and Umberto Saba, with incredible food, café culture, and seafood so fresh you watch it come in during the day and eat it that night. Trieste is teaming with young, vibrant locals that know how to waste away a day. Every corner seemed to have an open-air bar with a DJ ladling out some deep beats, or amazing vintage stores, or sprawling outdoor markets. Having been on a path for a week and now presented with unlimited options you run wild, eating, dancing, living with pure reckless abandon. Your compass points true north.
End of the road in Trieste? I don’t think so. Where will the next step take me?
Is it Venice? Maybe Vienna? Valencia? Trieste is a protean seaside haven for those that know how to live life.
I'd walk the streets of Trieste any time.
Usually, finding something this unique means going far off the beaten path, somewhere no one else has tread. On Foot Holidays does that for you by having passionate locals build the route, craft the itinerary, make the connections, handing you a kind of deep personal knowledge before you've even arrived. You come home strangely well-rested and exhausted all at once, as close to Zen, as you've ever been. Some things come into sharper focus. Others you thought you understood, you start to question. Who knew that walking could do so much, and take you so far, and most importantly, where will the next step bring you?
get in the know The olm (Proteus anguinus) is a blind, pale amphibian that lives in Slovenia's caves and can survive for years without food. Locals once believed they were baby dragons washed out of caves during floods, and honestly, they do look the part (Google them).
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